Thumbplay's future is uncertain.  Recently acquired by Clear Channel for integration into their iHeartRadio service, it's unclear in what form the Thumbplay service will survive in the future.  Will it simply be re-branded and re-designed to fit into their service?  Will it be trimmed down and absorbed in partial form? Until we know the answers to this I can't really recommend anyone start using it, and in any case it doesn't look like their web site is even accepting new users at this time.
This is a shame because it's a strong service. Â I hope it comes out of this better than ever, in which case it could be one of the best out there, but we'll have to wait and see. Â For now here's my overview of the service in its current form:
Library size: With the exception of Rdio, Thumbplay has the most limited selection of the services, at least for the various forms of Electronica that I most commonly listen to. It's not bad, but often lacks one or more albums that most of the other services have.
Playlist genie: If you listen to less well-known artists like I often do, their playlist genie (an otherwise excellent service) will often be unable to generate a playlist of recommended music. Â No matter how good it is when it works, it's a serious weakness if it often fails to work at all.
No scrubber (on Android): The PC and iOS versions let you rewind/fast-forward through a song, but not on Android. A frustrating omission made more noticeable because it is included in other versions.
Lack of metadata (iOS and Android): The PC version has some metadata on artists and albums, but the mobile versions have very little.
Thumbplay's plain but well-designed UI may not impress too much at first, but with extended use I've come to appreciate how carefully thought-out it is. They pack lots of choices in each screen without having them feel cluttered. Â Every feature also pretty much operates how you'd expect it to, with few surprises.
Non-web-browser-based PC client: Their PC client, like the mobile clients, won't "wow" you at first, but it's well designed and just makes sense. Â It's Adobe Air-based which some won't like, but it gives it a more polished feel than most of its competitors' PC offerings.
Playlist genie: When it works (see above) the playlist genie is remarkably adept. Â You choose a song to have it generate a playlist of related music for you, and it does a great job of finding similar music with lots of gems mixed in. It's not perfect, but head and shoulders above its ham-fisted siblings found in older services like Rhapsody and Napster. Â Only Mog's "radio" feature rivals this. Â Both playlist genie and Mog use Echo Nest's service for music discovery and I suspect that this is responsible for the similar excellence of both features.
Playlist management: Thumbplay has the best playlist management across all platforms of any of its rivals. Â Options to add/edit/remove tracks from playlists work as expected. Â It works so well it fades into the background, and only when using the less-capable or less-well-designed playlist features of its rivals that I began to appreciate how well Thumbplay nailed this. Â It's a foundational feature of any of these sorts of services, and theirs works very well.
Offline play: Thumbplay makes it easy to save songs/albums/playlists for play offline when cell service is not available, and once again it "just works" with a minimum of fuss.
Survive the Clear Channel acquisition without losing your strengths
Catch up on the size of your music library to rival your competitors
Get playlist genie to work consistently
Consistent ability to scrub through songs on all platforms
I really like this service, and hope it comes through better than ever. Â If it does, and they can implement at least some of the features I mentioned above it could be the one I primarily use. Â Cross your fingers Clear Channel treats it well!